Ceremony of Innocence

by Conrad Martin

A falcon and a falcon are flying
by loop and swing,
through climb and sweep,
stooping and stepping
out into the deep
above the meadow.
Swung invisibly they are
each from other,
sheen and shadow
turn and slip through voiding ellipse,
crossing and crossing the chasm of the air.
They are braiding taut
the tether of themselves
through the knot of the other—
for only by despair is love alone in the meadow.
A falcon and a falcon are flying
high and higher in the widening gyre
on a blue sphere swung
from a sun hung from nothing,
but in all this thinning distance I am
always facing back—
you who are also wings I trace and my face
is always back towards you.

Conrad Martin lives in western Pennsylvania, working in freelance design, fabrication, and writing.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy